What is destination cultural capital, and what is its role in tourism? The present inquiry addressed these questions by examining a mediated relationship among perceived destination cultural capital, impression in memory, brand love, enjoyable reminiscence, and revisit intention based on cultural capital theory and mental time travel perspective. It further draws on shattered assumptions theory to underscore the boundary conditions of COVID-19 worries and meaning in life. By undertaking three empirical studies, this investigation offers a mechanism that explains how reminiscences of past travel memories could galvanize interest in future voyages during the new normal. This inquiry broadens the scope of cultural capital in tourism scholarship and identifies its role in tourists’ beliefs through a cognitive–affective moderated dyadic process. It enriches the literature by providing a theoretical synthesis of the shattered assumptions and cultural capital perspectives, one that links mental time and corporeal travel.